marion never stop exposing the contradictions. from havana, cuba, to beijing, china, to moscow, the capitals representing the legislators but not washington, d.c. they pay the the highest taxes. our children are sent to jail more often than those in most states. as well as to serve and bleed in the military. we deserve more than taxation without representation. he never fought small battles he always had big dreams. marion was a builder. for the first, got legal contracts, accounting contracts. cable contracts, radio stations. tv stations, construction contracts. architectural contract. marion was a builder. sometimes i would laugh at him, because of what way he would speak. my name is marion barry. marion barry. we should not judge him for his eloquence but for his dependability and protection and service and love for the people. some of the mayors -- maynard jackson.

he was among freedom fighters of became mayors. and change the culture of those towns. marion was a freedom fighter and a long-distance runner. you can cross the finish line with a resume, and add campaign, and some money and be on official but marion came not as a show horse but a workhorse. he came across the line with people in it. lifting up the seniors and the poor and those was a backs were against the wall. he was a hero. he has got scars from his scars. he got his scars from his scars. -- stars from his scars. some will have only uniforms because they did not volunteer for the team. cowards. local changes a contact sport. some make the team but never the field. those on the field have grass stains and blood on the uniforms. no one ever hit a homerun or scored a touchdown from the bench or from the stands. if you play baseball, you get hit with a fastball sometimes. if you play football, you get tackled over and over again.

marion got bloodied, but never bowed. he died in office serving, and never stopped fighting back. i started by asking the question, this mayor for life, marion barry have the jewels for the crown according to the jesus standard? when you hire the most in -- young people, that is a jewel. you gave the most jobs to those with the been locked up before. that is a jewel. gave the most contracts for those of had been denied them. that is a jewel. there is hope for the most downtrodden, and that's a jewel. he embraced out and culture without shame, and that is a jewel. -- african culture without shame, and that is a jewel. he visited the most hospitals. he visited the most jails. he endured the longest -- a crown full of jewels. someone say he went to jail. so did joseph. but he got out and fed families. he healded the broken. so did malcolm. he came out a redeemer. so did dr. king. he wrote a letter.

geo can be a place to think -- jail can be a place to thank areaink. i hear john sitting on the isle of patmos. i am left to die. i have no friends. sometimes you fight in the night. i see a new heaven, a new earth, the old one passed away. marion, you have got a crown full of jewels. you're still leaving. it-- leading. it we are right behind you. by the way, you can feel good because we know the righteous judge will welcome you now. no writer matters today. no more pain, criticism does not matter now. you can now reconnect with your friends that you have here that most of us never got a chance to meet. so, say hello to the people you knew and worked with. say hello to make travis -- to medgar evars, you know him. given how to emmett till, who made you cry. -- give a dog to emmett till

who made you cry. tell julius hobson we missed him on the marches. cal held mason we are still working on statehood. -- tell hilda mason. say hello to hosea and washington and ralph abernathy. and tell maya angelo we miss her so much. tell them, the old friends, john lewis and roger wilkins and mary marion barry. and maxine waters. we are behind them. tell them it is not over. jurors are finding no justification to indict the shooters. tell them we have a second wind now. tell we have a brother beloved in the white house. but they call him names and reject his health plan to heal the sick. tell them we have a standup attorney general. they are keeping him busy.

tell them we made progress but down in the red zone, it is getting mean down here. tell them that we have -- on our -- congress on our backs and the jails are overcrowded, they cannot hold our body down. martin, and michael brown and medgar evars. so that we are still driving on, marion. tell them we are not giving up. tell them we are fighting back. tell them banks are robbing the people. not people robbing the bank's. tell them. but then tell them there is a new generation. their children and grandchildren, the young dreamers are standing up. and fighting back. lying down, fighting back. tell them there is a young jamaal brian. tell them we are fighting back. tell them some young rappers some standup preachers, some high school and college students and some ballplayers in st. louis holding up their hands say ing, don't shoot. by the way, tilde we celebrated

mrs. parks's birthday this week. say hello to mandela who got to have any year ago. you'vd hade had the most, hired the most. you have endured the most. they will see your jules and your service to the crown. someone has to tell them that cora is still fighting for justice. christopher has a business now. they will be proud to hear this. tell them rest assured they will say well done the songwriter said it best he said "when you give the best of your service, he will say well done. you never stop talking poor people's talk. tell them you fought the good fight. and you have kept the faith and finished. tell them it is dark but the morning comes.

tell them -- the light in our submission. tell them there is power in the blood. tobin them the grave can hold us. -- tell them of grade can hold us tell them if when you give, the best of your service telling the world the savior has come. be not dismayed when men do not believe you because you will understand the righteous judge will say well done. tell them, misunderstood the savior of sinners. hung on the cross, he was god's only son. but hear him calling his father in heaven, "let not my will but thine be done. go -- done." when you fail, tell them your hands are sore. from the work he begun. tell them, pick up your cross and take it to jesus. he will understand. if my people -- love you, marion -- who are called by my name. will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, god will he

ar your prayer and forgive your sin and he will say, well done. god bless you, marion. i will see you in the morning. love you, marion. love you, marion. [applause] courts coming up on c-span supreme court justice samuel alito and former governor jeb bush discussed the bill of rights. and then the funeral service for former washington post editor ben bradley. and that a memorial service for james brady. >> on the next "washington journal," we look at the state of the affordable care act and the changes coming in 201485. -- 0212015.

" washington journal" is life. -- live. >> new year's day on the c-span network. here are the featured programs. the clock a.m. eastern, the washington ideas for him. energy conservation -- 10:00 a.m. eastern, the washington ideas for him. it at 4:00 p.m. eastern, the brooklyn historical society. and then, at 8:00 p.m. eastern, from the explorers club, the first manned space flight. new year's day on c-span do, just before noon eastern, author hector only 33 men buried initially in min -- in a chile an mine. and then a former correspondent

owner experience with the obama administration -- on her experience with the obama administration. at sign :00 a.m. eastern juanita abernathy on the role of women in the civil rights movement area at 4:00 p.m. professor benjamin cart on the link between alcohol and politics. and at 8:00 p.m., a cartoonist draws presidential caricatures as historian david mccullough discusses the presidents and their most memorable qualities. new year's day on the c-span networks. for complete schedule, go to c-span.org. >> the 114 congress convenes in a few weeks. republicans will have 247 members, the largest gop majority since the 1928 elections. there will be 188 democrats.

the new congress will be the first of female lawmakers. of the 84 lawmakers in the house, most will be republican. among the group of women is representative from utah, the only republican african-american woman to serve in the u.s. house. >> now, supreme court justice samuel alito and former governor jeb bush discussed the bill of rights and the founding fathers. they spoke at the national constitution center, where a new exhibit features the founding documents, including the bill of rights, the constitution, and the declaration of independence. this is an hour. [applause] >> i am so glad to welcome you tonight.

justice alito, governor bush governor and mrs. corbett. david rubenstein, honored guests. i am jeffrey rosen. i'm the president of this institution, the national constitution center, the only institution in america chartered by congress to disseminate information about the u.s. constitution on a nonpartisan basis. it is hard to imagine a more exciting milestone in the fulfillment of that inspiring mission than the one we celebrate tonight. 225 years ago, october 1789, george washington sent to the states 13 copies of the bill of rights and one to the federal government. 12 of those copies survived.

today, one of them is returning to philadelphia. it will be displayed in the george h.w. bush gallery, which we are unveiling and previewing today in a beautiful exhibit. it will open to the public later this year. this display is made possible thanks to a historic agreement between the commonwealth of pennsylvania and the new york public library. governor corbett is here tonight. the exhibit, which he will see after, is thrilling. it includes a stone declaration of independence, and the first public printing of the cots to -- constitution. the exhibit tells the story of the rights promised in the declaration, implicit in the constitution, and caught a five in the bill of rights. -- codified in the bill of

rights. it includes interactive this which we produced with constitute to click on any provision of the bill of rights, to see antecedents, and to follow the spread of that liberty to constitutions around the world. the new gallery and exhibit will be the focal point for three years of debate and education at the national constitution center, online, and around the country. john templeton foundation has awarded us a grant to promote debate and the meaning of our founding documents. we are so grateful for their generosity and patriotism. [applause] i am also thrilled to announce the partnership with the college board, the national constitution center will create the best

nonpartisan interactive constitution on the web. weevil commission materials on conservative and liberal interpreters cochaired by the founders of the federalist society and the american constitution society. the two leading conservative and liberal lawyers groups. we will convene scholars from all perspectives today they issues -- debate issues, and we will build podcasts held on every media clackum across america. the museum of we the people. as a center for civic education, the national constitution center

is the one place in america where citizens and students can hear all sides of the constitutional debates at the center of american life and make up their own minds. this is an exciting moment. it is also a time familial celebration. many donors are here tonight. their names are recognized in the gallery. william and hillary rodham clinton, president clinton served as chair of the constitution center after president bush and their friendship is a model for the bipartisanship the center exemplifies. it is my privilege to introduce the superb share of the national constitution center. when i began this wonderful job, governor jeb bush told me his father considered his service to be his most meaningful postpresidential service. that persuaded bush to follow clinton. his commitment to educating children of all ages about the founding documents has helped to cement our exciting collaborations with the college

board, intelligence squared, with whom we started a constitutional debate series and a model for nonpartisanship and patriotism. i am pleased to be able to stand with governor bush to honor his father tonight. when it came time to name the bill of rights gallery president bush's friends and admirers decided it should be named in his honor for his patriotic devotion to the national constitution center into united states of america. we are grateful for governor bush taking of his father's example, and his engagement with the national constitution center. he is joined by his son, jeb junior. governor jeb bush. [applause]

>> thank you. thank you all very much. thank you. if you can't get fired up about the declaration of independence and the constitution of the bill of rights, you just need to go back and learn how to get fired up. [laughter] the enthusiasm for what jeff brings to this job is extraordinary. i love the mission of visit, learn, debate. the visiting comes to this great city of philadelphia. hopefully we will get more visitors because of this historic arrangement with the new york library and the state of pennsylvania to have the bill of rights be located here. there are a lot of great exhibits. tell your friends and neighbors to come. it is important for cash flow purposes that we have people that come to visit. [laughter] learning about our heritages and our past is something i think we lack in our country.

jeff believes that we need to reengage with our heritage in a way that makes it vital and alive in 2014 and beyond. so people believe we have a set of shared values. i can guarantee you the problems that seem intractable today, like nothing seems to working these days, part of it has to do with the fact that we don't have a set of shared values that we talk about enough. going back to our history, understanding what it was, the genius of the founders, and what they created here, and how we apply it to everyday life matters. learning about our past through the constitution is another important element of what the national constitution center does, and the debate that jeff is a master of, bringing people of disparate views to be able to debate their points here and across the country is another element of what we do. i am honored to be the chairman of the national constitution

center. i have to tell you, we are honoring my dad today. i will just tell you he is [indiscernible] i am not objective about this. i think he's the greatest man i've ever met. [laughter] my dad called me and said, president clinton, it is time for him to leave as the chairman of the national constitution center. i'm not telling you to do this but you should consider doing it. here i am. [laughter] all it took was a hint to suggest that i do this. of course i did. he was wise. this has been an extraordinary experience for me. i want to thank the board of trustees and donors them in a possible for this exhibit to be funded. it is an honor for the bush family. justice alito is a joy to be with you. take you for being here.

out of a very hectic time to come celebrate this, it is special for us. thank you for coming. thank you for sharing the document. we won't say whether it is a new york bill of rights or a pennsylvania bill of rights. i will not get into that mess, but i just did. [laughter] david rubenstein has been incredibly successful in his life. i'm not sure everybody understands the full commitment to his generosity, not just with money but he is writing the editor of the exhibit here. thank you for your commitment to our history and heritage. a lot of people talk about this stuff. he has made a huge difference. [applause]

i am truly honored to be here to represent the bush family in this honor. my dad is 90 years old. he can't walk anymore. but he can fly and jump out of airplanes. what he did on his birthday. he has a joy for life. he loves this country with all his heart and soul. this honor would be a big deal if he was here, he would get emotional. i'm want to lessen my speech. there is some dna problem amongst bushes, when we talk about personal things, we cry like babies. [laughter] i know for a fact that my dad would be extraordinarily honored. he is honored, so is my mom, that this designation has been given to him. all bushes across the land, the next order i'm giving them is to come in to see it. thank you. [applause]

>> thank you so much. beautiful words. it is now my pleasure to introduce governor tom corbett the 46 governor of the commonwealth of pennsylvania. as governor and attorney general of the keystone state, he helped negotiate the historic agreement that allows the near public library in the commonwealth of pennsylvania to take turns displaying the bill of rights over the next hundred years. the governor is joined by the first lady, susan corbett. you spoke eloquently last week at our award of liberty medal. for preserving our founding documents, your passion is appreciated. please welcome governor corbett.

[applause] >> thank you so much for inviting us here today. having a little opportunity to get together on what is an event that i have been looking forward to for, how many years? five years? i think it should be noted steve came to me five years ago when i was attorney general and said how would you like to get the bill of rights to pennsylvania? i'm game. from that point forward steve did a great job of really representing the commonwealth of pennsylvania in the discussion. i'm so glad that we were able to reach an accommodation that we share it.

we share it not just with pennsylvania, not just with people from new york. all the visitors that come to philadelphia and new york from around the world. why do they come? they come to see what is really the embodiment of what this country is about. it's freedom. freedom is not a new idea. if you think about it, freedom is new in the grander scale of the time that we have had this world. even though it is 225 years after it was written into law, the concept that was rather new at the time, is still new in many areas of the world. natural inheritance. the bill of rights has survived two centuries. it has been the touchstone of our citizenship and the genius

of our founding fathers, and the truth that we are born free. this acknowledgment stands as a shining contrast to other parts of the world. we see it today. extremist do prowl the globe. they silence dissenters. we do not. they deny education and personal freedom to women. we do not. they hate the concert that individuals know what is best for them. that is why after crafting our constitution that explains the structure and the function of our government, the constitutional convention crafted ended up with 10 amendments to make sure the same government that protects social order would not suppress

personal freedom. the framers of the bill of rights didn't invent the rights printed recognize the essential freedoms of speech, the press, religion, personal property, human dignity already existed, that we continue existing in the core elements of human society. the genius of madison and colleagues was to understand every person is born with those rights, the rights record in those first 10 amendments are every child's inheritance to exercise, and every governments obligation to honor. they are god-given rights. we are born with essential freedoms no government can take away without becoming illegitimate. governments are seized by men who respect only their own power, and honor only their own believes. silence the voices that question them, grabbing industries for their enrichment, are illegitimate.

that has not happened in the united states. even people who would use freedoms to destroy society have not succeeded in a racing the understanding of the heart of every man, woman, child. that freedom is the natural order of things. the bill of rights is our framers discovery of this truth. a truth written in language as impactful today as the day our forefathers created the document we are enshrining here today. it is my pleasure on behalf of the commonwealth of in sylvania to thank you for joining us, to have the public library of new york joining with us, sharing our freedoms that written down in a document that is 225 years old.

people from around the world are going to come and see, that will immigrate to this country and become citizens of this country because they believe in this constitution, and those 10 commitments. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you governor, for that superb encapsulation of the natural rights philosophy of the founders. we are grateful for your engagement with the constitution center in your negotiations with our friends at the public library. it is now my special pleasure to introduce tony marx, the president and ceo of the new york public library, working with the commonwealth of pennsylvania and the national constitution center, helping shepherd the agreement that brought us here today. he believes the near public library is an educational constitution.

to spread the constitution education. we are here to celebrate the new york public library public spirit, coming to this agreement because of our joint interest in displaying the bill of rights to the public. when the constituting liberty exhibit opens later this year, citizens around the country can be inspired by the document and learn about the ideas it embodies. please join me in welcoming tony marx. [applause] >> thank you. it is good to be here in this fabulous city in the commonwealth,, to be in this fabulous facility, and partnering with you all. i understand president clinton

was sharing the board of the national prostitution center suggested as the current share governor bush, it's other has to be a way for all citizens to enjoy this document, that we should find a way to make that possible, to share it in that sense. here tonight, we celebrate the bipartisanship and agreement of the public interest of clintons

and bushes together. i want to thank our trustees and donors who have made this exhibit possible through their support of the library and the encasement for the bill of rights. i want to thank my team at the new york public library has been working tirelessly around-the-clock through weekends, or months now. the library has been a great steward of this document for over a century. we continue to be great stewards of this document. we are pleased to can be shared and viewed here in philadelphia as well. we will be putting it on display at the near public library together with all of our treasures, for anyone to see. we hope every school child in new york will come visit, our copy of jefferson's declaration of independence, these documents are not just artifacts of history, they are movers of history.

when i came to the near public library and asked about our collections, i was told about this document. i said i'm the president, i want to see it. they took it out. my first reaction is exactly the first reaction every one of you will have, and every citizen in school child and tourist will have, which is spine tingling. to have the sense, that george washington looked at this piece of paper, approved the copy, and said send it out for ratification, so the people of america could decide on their own rights. there was a second reaction i had when i to the careful look.

i have a phd in political science. i looked at the document and i said i don't know, i think you have been had. i'm pretty sure there are only 10 amendments. this has 12. it took seeing the document for me to learn, and i am sure i will not be alone, that we sent 12 out for ratification, and only 10 survived. we have the best preserved copy there is. the ratification process got rid of the two stupid proposals. if not for that process, we would have at a bill of rights that ensured a congress of 6000 members. that would have been good. [laughter] and, in the bill of rights, a guarantee of how much the members of congress would be paid. that surely deserves to be in the first 10 rights.

this document teaches. it teaches how democracy works. it teaches at its beginning that democracy can make the right decisions. collectively, we can separate the two that don't belong from the 10 that we celebrate today.

we hope that this display, and the display for this document, and its related documents around the country, will continue to aspire generations to learn, to debate, to respect. i am not a governor. i am not a justice. i'm a citizen. i know one thing. if history tells us one thing, in the decades ahead, there will be hard times. there will be crises, there will be fears. they will challenge our beliefs. if the display of this document is some small way here in philadelphia helps to remind us to hold to those truths, to those principles and rights that will see us through whatever dark days may come, and what we do here today will be well worth while. thank you. [applause]

>> thank you so much tony. we are thrilled by our collaboration. thrilled to share this joint commitment to constitutional education. it is now my great pleasure to introduce my friend and co-author, david rubenstein. david rubenstein has generously lent us a stone declaration of independence. perhaps he will tell us about the prominence of that store we. he came to the national constitution center last fall. i decided to interview him about the relationship between the constitution of the declaration of the bill of rights. our conversation was so riveting. he has such a gift for explaining the ideas that animate these founding documents to his students of all ages. we decided to transcribe the conversation and to write it up, to use it as the script for the exhibit you will see. this is the real reason i have gathered you. to use it as the introduction to our national constitution center pocket constitution and create a

pamphlet we will distribute in the gallery and online on our incredible site that will make this available to students across the land, so they can read in clear language about how the rights were implicit in the constitution and codified in the bill of rights. i have so enjoyed being your co-author, and i'm so grateful to you for your patriotic philanthropy and your engagement with the national constitution center. please join me in welcoming david rubenstein. [applause] >> last week and i have the honor at the smithsonian to

interview a man named jim buckle. you may know of him. he was the pilot on apollo 13. you have seen the movie. i asked him, did nasa know 13 is an unlucky number? i went through the apollo 13. you have seen the movie. i asked him about apollo eight. apollo eight was the first time that any human had ever left the orbit of the earth and had gone into another being's orbit. some of you may remember this. at the end of 1968, a difficult year. he and his copilot became the man of the year for time magazine. as they went around the dark side of the moon, they came around and saw an earthrise. no one had ever seen earthrise before. they saw the earth in its beauty, it's blue and white. no human had ever seen the earth in that picture before. 240,000 miles away. he put his thumb up and realized that the sum was able to block the entire earth.

he realized, how small and insignificant the earth really is. what is the likelihood that life would exist on any one planet, anyone solar system, anyone galaxy? as i thought about it, i thought it is similar to bringing 57 human beings together, in philadelphia, for four months, and telling them to come up with a new way to govern this country. the odds were about the same. one in a billion. wanted a billion there is human life somewhere else. one in a billion you could get people to come up with a new system of governing that is still operating more or less. before the constitution was developed, there had never been anything like it. since then, there has been nothing like it. we are still operating largely

through that constitution. i think that constitution, because of its guarantees and the structure of the government, and able this country to become what it has become. we open at a two to those 57 -- we oh a great deal of gratitude to those 57 individuals. think about this. they were told they had to stay most of the summer. they did. three of them did not sign it. why didn't they? if not for that process, we would have at a bill of rights that ensured a congress of 6000

54 signed it. -- three did not. why didn't they? why didn't they sign it? randolph from virginia, mason from virginia, and eldridge perry from massachusetts said there is no bill of rights. in the ratification process, it was not certain that this document would be ratified. it was not certain at all. it was only ratified because there was a bill of rights. going to be a bill of rights. it was agreed by certain states they would ratify on the presumption there would be a bill of rights. james madison, who worked very hard to get the ratification in virginia, and it occurred very narrowly, a member of the first house of representatives, he drafted not 12 amendments, he drafted 39 amendments. 12 of them got through both houses. they ultimately were approved by the states, and they became part of our system of government. without the bill of rights, i think our constitution would not be what it is. it is a unique set of freedoms and rights. and i think all of us are privileged to be in a country that has these rights and these freedoms, and i think all of you, everybody should think about how unusual it is that a country like this, all of us who have risen up from probably modest circumstances, could rise up and do what we have done, probably protected by the freedoms in the bill of rights and the extraordinary system the

constitution developed for our government. the constitution had a fatal flaw in many ways. in addition to not having a bill of rights, it did not have an adequate way to address slavery. and obviously, we suffered the consequences of that for many years, and ultimately a civil war occurred, and we are still dealing with the consequences. that exception aside, and it is a terrible exception, the constitution is an incredible living document, one that has given us the country we have. i would like to briefly talk about one thing just mentioned declaration of independence. the declaration of independence, like the constitution, they try to do the same thing. they both try to overthrow a government. one peacefully, and one by violence, more or less, by war. the declaration of independence, also in philadelphia, was drafted by thomas jefferson.

he was given 17 days to do it, and he did it like most people in the last three or four days. he waited until the end. [laughter] he drafted it, gave it to his committee to edit. it was edited modestly by benjamin franklin and john adams, and then he waited for it to be voted on. july 2, the second continental congress voted for independence, and john adams wrote home to his wife abigail. he said, "today will be the day american history will remember forever. today is the day we will remember forever. today is the day we will celebrate forever. july 2." that was the day they voted to be independent. they then took up the document thomas jefferson drafted. in his view, they mutilated it. he sat mute because he did not like to publicly talk. as president, he only made one public speech. he had a high and squeaky voice, he was not a good speaker, so he never spoke in public much. he didn't speak that day when they were relating his document. he later sent the document to his friends and said, don't you think it is better? ultimately they agreed to it on july 4, then they went next door to a printer and said, would you print up 200 copies of this, so one can go to the king of england, one can go to george washington to read to the

troops, one can go to every state, and people can know why we are being independent. in that document, the most famous sentence in the english line which appeared. it became the guiding spirit for the constitution, the guiding spirit for our country. "we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." the idea that all people are equal was a guiding principle that guided us for many years. and while we still have not achieved it perfectly, we are making more progress in this direction than any other country of our size or type. and it was thomas jefferson who drafted that document. and then, after mr. dunlop distributed it, it was decided the members would come back and sign it. they came back in august. they signed the declaration of

independence. that document is in the archives, but it has faded. as it was fading, john quincy adams said they had to make a perfect copy, because it had been treated poorly and was almost burned in the war of 1812 when the british were invading. so it was safely stored, but it was fading. and so they did make 200 perfect copies in 1832, called stone copies, after the printer mr. stone. now, there are 35 of them left. whenever you see in "the new york times" a copy of the declaration of independence, you are seeing a stone copy, which is now here. a perfect replica, made by a process where they took a wet cloth to the original declaration of independence and took off half the ink, ruining further the original declaration of independence, but they made a perfect copy, and now we have these perfect copies so people can see it. the declaration of independence really was designed to overthrow the government. the constitution was designed to

overthrow the government a peaceful way. let me conclude by making two points. one, that i have the privilege of knowing many people who served as president. i worked in the white house for one, and i worked with a number of others. i have gotten to know george herbert walker bush, and i would say he is by far the nicest person who ever served as president of the united states that i have ever met. the nicest person i ever met who served as president. i thought about it over the years, he is the nicest person i ever met, not just president. the nicest single person i have ever met. he is a person who has enormous generosity for other people -- enormous compassion, extraordinarily talented, and obviously a person we would call a great american. had he been around in the 1700's, he would have been a founding father. there is no doubt in my mind that he would have been the kind of person the states would have said, you have to go to the

second continental congress. you work on the declaration of independence. you work on the constitutional convention. i think he would have been a spectacular founding father. and so today, i just want to pay respects, because he is a man extraordinary in what he has done for our country. the kind of person you could say, what are the founding fathers like? if you know george herbert walker bush, you know what a founding father was like. final comment i would make is, i would like everyone to do what they can to remind people of the great history we have in this country. i like to call it patriotic philanthropy, giving back to the country, reminding people that it is important to give your time, your energy, your money --

because we can't let our children and grandchildren not know about our history. today, so few children know about the history of our country. so few know about the american revolution. so few know about the bill of rights, the constitution. the declaration of independence. it is sad when you look at what children learn today, compared to what they should know. so the extent that any of you have time, energy, money, and you can contribute to awareness of this kind of thing, i regard it as patriotic philanthropy. a very important thing to think about doing. for your children, your grandchildren, our country. when john kennedy gave his inaugural address, you all remember what he said. "ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." that is as true today as it was then. he ended that speech, that great inaugural address, by saying with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love with his blessing and his help, but knowing that here on earth god's work must truly be our own. we have to recognize that god's work, in my view, is reminding people of the great freedoms we have because of the constitution, the bill of rights, and the extraordinary country we have. to the extent that all of us can do something to remind people and help people that way -- we are doing god's work on earth. thank you very much. [applause]

>> thank you, david, for that passionate defense of patriotic philanthropy, and beautiful tribute to president bush. and david mentioned there was one wrong that had to be righted in the original constitution. and that was the effacement of slavery. well, i'm about to put david to work again. because the 13th amendment which turns 150 next year,

abolished slavery. david generously agreed to loan us the 13th amendment, and we will have another conversation about this. and its importance, and its relation to the bill of rights. we are going to publish another pamphlet. then, here's what i want to do. i want to create the only gallery committed to the constitutional legacy of reconstruction in america. so we are going to have three copies of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments abolishing slavery, guaranteeing equality and giving african-americans the right to vote. we will combine that with civil war artifacts, and i think it will be thrilling to teach americans that reconstruction amendments are just as central to our constitutional tradition as the bill of rights. that's the next big project for the constitutional center. it is now my great honor to introduce our keynote speaker, justice samuel alito. he is the 110th justice of the supreme court, and our circuit justice here in the third circuit, where he sat before becoming an associate justice in 2006. justice alito is a devoted friend of pennsylvania and of the third circuit. he gave a keynote address at our circuit conference last spring one of the funniest i ever heard. he is coming to us from new haven, where he participated in

what sounded like a pretty raucous panel at yale law school involving justices thomas and soto mayor -- sotomayor. he was asked,what was the most inspirational book you've ever read? and he said, i keep two inspirational books. "my grandfather's son" by justice thomas, and "my beloved world" by justice sotomayor. [laughter] he is respected and feared by supreme court advocates, because he always asks the most pointed and relevant questions that get to the heart of the case. we are honored he is here tonight. with his wonderful and vivacious

wife, martha. so much fun to get a chance to talk to you. it was wonderful to talk to you. we are absolutely honored he agreed to address us tonight on the subject of the bill of rights. join me in welcoming justice samuel alito. [applause] >> thank you, for the introduction. thank you for inviting me here. it is wonderful to be a part of this celebration. this is a great event. when i was invited, and i leaped at the opportunity to come, what came to my mind were a number of connections between things that are relevant to tonight's event. i'm going to speak for a short i'm going to speak for a short time, but what i do want to talk about are some of those

connections. the first are personal. i hope you will pardon me if i begin with a couple personal connections to tonight's event. this has been an important night for me in the work that i do for many years. i have been deciding cases involving provisions of the bill of rights, and i have been looking at both pocket versions of the constitution like this, and i have taken it on faith that their version of the bill of rights is actually what was adopted by congress and ratified by the states. today i had the opportunity to look at an original and verify that there really aren't any discrepancies. [laughter] that has been important to me. another personal connection is in 1990 i was appointed to the united states court of appeals for the third circuit, a wonderful court which is headquartered right across the street, by president george h.w. bush.

i am grateful for him giving me the opportunity. as a result, i spent a lot of very satisfying days in this historic city and this historic part of the city, and i learned something interesting to me personally during my confirmation period, not a period i would like to relive, but it had a few high points. a newspaper hired a genealogist, to do a genealogy of my family and one of the things that was discovered was that my paternal grandmother and grandfather came to the united states through philadelphia. they landed here just a short distance away, at the port of philadelphia. so philadelphia is meaningful to me for those reasons. those are just personal connections. what i want to talk about are connections between what we are celebrating here today, the exhibit of an original copy of the bill of rights, and today's events. and what i want to talk about are connections between the bill

of rights and two great historic american cities, and also connections between the bill of rights and the president. now, you can probably guess which cities and which president i'm going to talk about. the first of the cities as new york, which of course is connected to this event because the new york public library is very graciously loaning its copy of the bill of rights to the exhibit here. and i'm sure we are all very

grateful to that great institution for allowing that to happen. but there's another very important connection to the city of new york. new york was our nation's capital in 1789 when congress adopted the amendments which later became the bill of rights, and sent those amendments to the states for ratification. so new york city can claim the title as the birthplace of the bill of rights. the other city, of course, is philadelphia. that's where we are.

that's where this copy of the bill of rights is going to be exhibited in the national constitution center. but philadelphia also has deeper connections to the bill of rights. most of these have already been mentioned, but i think they bear repetition. first of all, the seed that became the bill of rights was planted here in philadelphia in 1776, when the continental congress adopted the declaration of independence. as we know, and as david rubenstein reminded us, the declaration of independence proclaimed that every person has certain unalienable rights. and the bill of rights codifies the promise of the declaration of independence. it codifies unalienable rights that are precious to us as americans. the bill of rights also represents the completion of the work that was done across the street in independence hall during the hot summer of 1787. that, of course, was where the body of our constitution was adopted and sent to the states for ratification. we all know the story. when the body of the constitution was completed there were those who thought that it was not complete, that the new, more powerful federal government that was created by the constitution would threaten the liberty of the people, and therefore they thought it was imperative that there be explicit guarantees of rights in the constitution. on the other hand, there were those who thought the structure of the new government framed by the constitution, limitations of federal authority and separation of powers, the system of dual sovereignty, provided better protection and sufficient protection for the rights of the people.

both of those groups were powerful, and ultimately what occurred was a compromise. the constitution was ratified, but as david rubenstein reminded us, it was ratified on the understanding that a bill of rights would be promptly framed and adopted, and that is what happened. today we can see that both of those groups were perceptive. on the one hand, the government has grown to a size that the founding generation could never have imagined, and the bill of rights is needed to keep the federal government and state governments in check, to make sure they do not violate precious individual rights. at the same time, without the governmental structure that the constitution created, the bill of rights would be like an arm without a body. constitutional provisions protecting individual rights are worse than useless if they are not backed by a governmental

structure to enforce those rights. that brings me to the third connection between the bill of rights and the city of philadelphia. by the time the first 10 amendments were ratified, the national capital had moved from new york to philadelphia, and it was here, across the street, that the supreme court heard its first cases. it had met in a very brief session in new york and adopted some internal rules, but after that the capital moved to philadelphia, the supreme court moved to philadelphia, the supreme court heard its first cases across the street. in the summer of 1791. it was not long after that, in the mid-1790's, that the court began to hear arguments about the provisions of the bill of rights. they were put into operation in that way. this brings me to the president to whom i referred. and i don't think it is a

mystery who i'm talking about. i'm talking about president george herbert walker bush. what is his connection here? well, first of all, we witnessed the unveiling of the president george h.w. bush gallery. so that is a connection. but there are two others i want to talk about. the first is something of a curiosity, and it relates to things that have been discussed. the amendments that we call the bill of rights were sent to the states for ratification on september 25, 1789. congress sent 12 amendments to the states, but the states originally ratified only 10 amendments. 13 through 12. the first of the amendments, it is certainly true that the first two really don't seem to fit in with what we consider the bill of rights. the first one, which concerned

the composition of the house of representatives, is still out there. it has not been ratified and probably never will be. [laughter] the second, which also does not fit with the provisions of the bill of rights, had a different history. it was finally ratified by the requisite number of states on may 7, 1992, 200-plus years after it was originally sent out by congress. it has to do with congressional pay. it provides that if congress gives itself a pay raise, it will not take effect until another election. in any event, we know who was president of the united states on may 7, 1992, president george h.w. bush. so that is a connection between him and the bill of rights. the second also concerns the date. but it is much more than a curiosity. president bush was in office on

the 200th anniversary of the ratification of the bill of rights, december 12, 1991. and he took that occasion to point out something that is very important, namely the connection between our bill of rights and the rights of people everywhere. for a long time, what our constitution gave us, a declaration of rights that actually had teeth. that is what is unique about our bill of rights, it actually has teeth, it is actually put into operation, it is actually enforced. for a long time, that concept was an oddity. for more than 150 years, the idea that a legislative act is void if it infringes the right of the people found very few adherents anywhere else in the world. but world war ii, where

president george h.w. bush fought with great distinction as a pilot, changed that. the enormity of the evil that was perpetrated by the third reich, often under the veneer of legality, prompted people throughout the world to rethink the whole question of rights. and the american idea of an enforceable bill of rights began to catch on. all of the former axis powers after world war ii adopted new democratic constitutions that protect human rights and provide for judicial review of constitutionality of government acts. then, after the collapse of the soviet union and the warsaw pact during president bush's term in office, the newly liberated nations of eastern europe followed suit. in his proclamation on the 200th anniversary of the bill of

rights, on december 12, 1991 president bush noted that "the principles enshrined in the bill of rights have inspired the advance of freedom around the globe." when president bush issued a proclamation, the greatest act in the history of human rights was just three days away. i'm sure that this was on president bush's mind when he issued a proclamation. on december 15, 1991, the soviet union was officially dissolved. president bush was able to say in his proclamation that "today we stand closer than ever to achieving universal respect for human rights." 23 years later, that and universal respect for human rights may not seem so close as

it was in 1991. but still the promise of the bill of rights endures. and i hope this display of the bill of rights will help, if only in a small way, to move us closer to that goal. when visitors look at this document, i hope the experience will lead to a greater appreciation of their constitutional rights, and that will inspire the public to work preserve those rights. constitutional rights, the precious freedoms protected by the bill of rights, are always fragile. they are always threatened. the judiciary and others in government have a role to play in protecting those rights. but as a great jurist, a new yorker once wrote, "liberty lies in the hearts of men and women. when he dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it." may this fan the flames of liberty in the hearts of all who see it in the upcoming years. thank you very much.

[applause] >> justice, thank you so much for that inspiring, substantive speech, which so thoughtfully explore the relation between the structural provisions of the constitution and the rights that were enumerated. i love your metaphor of the bill of rights without the constitution like an arm without a body. that reminded us of the influence of the constitution on constitutions around the globe. the constitutions of post-world war ii powers adopted u.s. provisions -- you know have the

opportunity, in previewing the exhibit, to check out the rights. you can put on the fourth amendment and see that general douglas macarthur literally cut and pasted it into the japanese constitution. the language is almost identical. this has been a thrilling evening, ladies and gentlemen. it has been an extension of the mission of the national constitution center, to unite thoughtful people from all perspectives to visit, learn debate, and most important of all, to participate in our shared enterprise of constitutional education and celebration of the document that binds and unites us as americans, the constitution, the declaration, and the bill of rights. i will welcome back to the members of the philadelphia orchestra to play the beautiful music.

please join us in previewing the new gallery, and thank you for joining us in this magnificent evening. [applause] ♪ [playing "stars and stripes forever"] ♪ ♪ >> coming up next, we look at some of the public figures we lost this year. ben bradley is usually just --

eulogized. then james brady's memorial held at the museum. the funeral service for former washington mayor marion barry. on the next "washington journal" we look at the state of the affordable care act and what changes are coming to health care coverage in 2015. julie rovner and margot senger cats -- margot sanger-katz you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. tomorrow night, a special presentation remembering public figures that passed away in 2014 beginning with former senate majority leader howard baker. we will show you the interview

he had with the historian smith. >> when i was first selected majority leader, i first went on the floor that day in the first thing i did was go to bob byrd and i said bob, i will never know the rule and precedent the way that you do but i will make you a deal. i will never surprise you if you won't surprise me. >> he said let me think about it. he came back later and said ok, and we never did. i think that tradition has carried on. i think dole adopted that point of view as well and it is a good position even if i did first advocated -- advocate it.

the rules say there is plenty room for disagreement and controversy and to do so within the framework of the organization without sneaking up on your adversary. >> howard baker was 88 years old when he died in june of this year. >> the c-span's cities to her takes tv on the road traveling to u.s. cities to learn about their history and literary life. we partnered with time warner cable for a visit to austin, texas. this was a private quarters. this is not part of a tour that is offered to the public. this is -- has never been open to the public and you are seeing it because of c-span's special

access. it is not open inon a really basis. it is a living, breathing artifact. it has not changed since president johnson died in january of 1973 and there is a document in the corner of this room signed by, among others that then-archivist of the united states and they divert johnson telling my predecessors myself and my successors that nothing in this room can change. >> we are here at the 100 block of congress avenue and austan. to my left is the river, the colorado river and this is an important site in the city's history because this is where waterloo was. it was a cluster of cabins occupied by four or five families including the family of jay carol and i am standing at

the spot where this cap and was and this is where they were standing when they got wind of a buffalo herd. it was a muddy hill that led north to her the capital sits. the stuff their belts. his souls and road into the midst of this heard of buffalo firing and shouting. from there he went to the top of the hill where the capital is and told everyone this should the the seed of the future empire. >> watch all of our events from austin saturday at noon eastern on c-span [applause] -- c-span2's book tv. >> the 114th congress convenes

in a little over a week. here is a look at the numbers create republicans will have 247 members of the house, the largest gop majority since the 1928 elections and there will be 188 customer kratz. all senators and house members have a college degree. more than 200 members will have law degrees and 53 in the senate. the new session begins on january 6. now, the funeral service of ben bradlee. he was eulogized at the national cathedral by his children and journalists. this is about two hours.

>> i am the resurrection and the life, saith the lord. he the that believe in me that he were dead, yet shall he live. and whosoever live us -- live with an believeth in me shall never die. i know that my redeemer live if and he shall stand up the

latter-day upon the earth and though this body be destroyed yet shall i see god whom i shall see for myself and my and eyes shall behold and not a stranger. for none of us live with to himself, and no man dieth to himself. for as we live, we live in to the lord, and if we die we die unto the lord. whether we live therefore or die, we are the lord's. blessed are the dead who die in the lord. even so saith the spirit, for the rest from their labors.

♪

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>> the lord be with you. crocs and also into you. >> let us pray. grant him into the land of life

and joy in the fellowship of life eighth. through jesus christ our son our lord. one god now and forever. amen. most possible god whose wisdom is beyond our understanding, and deal graciously with benjamin's family and friends in their grief. surround them with i love and -- they it they might not be overwhelmed by their loss but have confidence in the goodness and strength to meet the days to come. through jesus christ, our lord. amen. >> mr. vice president, mr. justice, mr. secretary, reverend clergy, sally, members of the

family. ladies and gentlemen. so, how lucky where we? this is washington, the city of big reputations. some of those reputations get punctured and ben was responsible for more than a few of those punctures. this is a very large building but everyone in it does people whose enormous or petitions are undeserved. we knew somebody much better than his very large reputation. even braver, even smarter, much more fun, he had his faults and if my mother, catherine graham were still here, she could go on a long come about those.

but she literally wrote the book about how great been glad -- ben bradlee was and it was a very long book. at the same time, what a lucky guy ben was himself. his marriage to sally field up the gossip columns of the rival papers but several decades later and we can all say you were the wife of his dreams. all you had to do was to make him smile which was to mention your name always. he died surrounded by children he loved and who loved him. then junior who they admired so much as editor and author marina whom i have known since she was a teenager and every visit to been made him happy in advance and afterwards. quinn, whose daily companionship

lit up his last 33 years. in the correspondence in which i am inexpert, my mother occasionally, perhaps teasingly uses the phrase male chauvinist pig to describe her fellow correspondent. surprise, in one crucial respect he wasn't. take my word for it. in 1963 when kay graham became publisher of the post and -- many men were reduced to blubber by the idea that they were suddenly working for a woman. no other man they knew was working for a woman because no other woman was running a large company other than kay graham. if a man at a company had any insecurities at of himself, he tended to demonstrate those insecurities around kay graham.

ben, after all those years as a destroyer officer in world war ii had no insecurities about himself and he recognized a great publisher when he saw one, my self doubting mother always second guessing within minutes the last decision she had made knew for once when she made ben the editor she had done something great. she knew it by the evidence of her own eyes and she knew it because every reporter she liked and trusted came and told her so. the reporters ben hired were the toughest he could find, and that meant they were the toughest critics of ben himself.

that was fine with him. those reporters, i hate to say it, mr. justice, would not believe the word of a supreme court justice under oath. the post staff could be fairly described as hard bitten. they were a group of men and women who proudly had no heroes, but he was our hero. benjamin c. bradlee, and he will be always. a reading from the book of ecclesiastics. for everything there is a season and a time forever matter under heaven.

a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to break down, and a time to build up, a time to weep, and a time to laugh, a time to mourn, and a time to dance, a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to seek and a time to lose, a time to keep, and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to sow, a time to keep silent and a time to speak, a time to love, and a time to hate, a time for war, and a time for peace. what gains have the workers from their toil, i have seen the business that god has given everyone to be busy with.

moreover, he is put a sense of past and future into their minds, yet they cannot find out what god has done from the beginning to the end. the lord of the lord -- good morning. my generation -- my generation considers the 26 years of ben bradleee -- ben bradlee's run in "the washington post" room as our golden age of journalism. he was the most enthusiastic cheerleader and the best protector and a reporter to ask for. there was nothing better than

ben coming to your desk the morning and getting a bradlee pat on the back. i can't repeat what he said here. \[laughter] in his memoir, ben wrote that he had been given ring side seats in some of the 20th century most vital moments, and lucky us, we were right there with him. for me and others at the post, he became more than just our post. in 1966, the year ben hired me from the "washington star" he heard that ann and i and our 3-month-old son needed a vacation spot. out of the blue he offered us a house he had rented on marge yaw

-- martha's vineyard because he had to get back to the paper. that started a friendship that only grew over the years. when ben married sally in october of 1978, she brought a new sparkle life to his life and to ours outside the paper. along with larry stern and others, we share decades of work, mixed with pleasure thanks to sally and ben. ben and catherine graham made the "post" a second family to many of us, but it was ben who every day was the pumping heart of the operation. and pushed us with a kind of competitive hunger that was infectious.

it's a solid foundation built by ben and the grahams that the "post" and our hope goes on to even greater heights. i once went into ben's office to ask for a raise. he looked up from a crossword puzzle that he was always doing and said in his best gruff tone, you ought to be paying me for all the fun you're having. [laughter] he was right. his friends, his colleagues had a pile of ben golden memories that add to the enormous debt we owe him for the richness of life he has given us all.

[choir singing]

>> a reading from the first letter of paul to the corithians. if i speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels but do not have love, i am a noisy gong or a clanging symbol. and if i have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and if i have all faith so as to remove mountains but do not have love, i am

nothing. in i give away all of my possessions and if i hand over my body so that i may boast but do not have love i gain nothing. love is patient. love is kind. love so not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. it does not insist on its own ways. it is not irritable or resentful. it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things endures all things. love never ends. but as for prophecies, they will come to an end as for tongues they will sees. as for knowledge, it will come to an end.

for we know only in part and we process the only in part, but when the complete come, the partial will come to an end. when i was a child, i spoke like a child, i thought like a child, i reasoned like a child. when i became an adult i put an end to my childish ways. for now we see in the mirror but then we will show face it face. now i know only in part then i will know fully even as i have been fully known and now faith hope and love provide, these three and the greatest of these is love, the word of the lord.

>> there have been memoirs endless interviews documentaries, movies about ben's leadership at the "post," what is the central part of his character, the part of him that was different? he was not afraid. on september 23, 1972, about 9:00 p.m., i reached john mitchell, president nixon's former attorney general and campaign manager by phone about a story we were running. it said he had controlled the secret fund for undercover operations such as water gate. mitchell was quite upset. responding jesus -- several

times as i read him the story. he then proceeded to threaten an important part of catherine's graham anatomy which he said would get caught in a big fat ringer if the "post" printed the story. he also said we're going to do a story on all of you and he hung up the phone. i called ben at home. woodward and i did not much observe the chain of command. ben interrogated me, had mitchell been drinking? i couldn't tell. did i properly identify myself? yes. did i have good notes? yes. ok, ben said, put in all of mitchell's comments in the paper but leave out mrs. graham's -- it's ok, he said. a top official of the nixon campaign called me a few minutes

later to make an appeal that mitchell had been caught in an unguarded moment. he had been a cabinet member and so forth. he doesn't want to show up in the paper like that. the official then called brad lee at home to repeat the appeal. bradlee recalled saying it just boils down to this question, mr. moore, or whether mr. mitchell said it or not and whether "the washington post" reporter identified himself as a reporter and if he did that, all my requisites have been satisfied. mitchell's comments stayed in the paper. to be honest, i was frightened. bob and i were 28 and 29 years old, a raw threat from the former attorney general, probably the official closest to nixon was not normal in the course of business as we knew it. the statement about doing a

little story on all of us was chilling. we knew a lot about how they operated, dirty tricks sabotage, espionage but ben didn't miss a beat. he was not just cruel but, hey this is a great sorry. get it in the paper fast. he couldn't wait to tell catherine graham who stopped by my desk the next morning and asked with a smile did i have anymore messages for her. [laughter] let's think about this for a minute. we live now in an era where too many of us run afraid. we look for and we embrace the safety play, what will the boss think, what will the president of the board of directors do? my god, i'm vulnerable. i better be careful. i better seek comfort in the company line or the party line. how do i stay on the main road? an outlandish number members of

congress now, democrats and republicans hold office in a safe district, protect it as long as they hold the party doctrine, whether left or right, the media cultures too often geared to the lowest denominator, make noise, get eye balls, cover the political battles like a football game manufacture as much controversy as can be jimmed up. ben lived and worked off the main road. there was no safe line except the truth. what happened? why? what is the context? no sensationalism. keep digging.

months later in 1973, late on april night, we learned that water gate was about to explode spectacularly and nixon's involvement in leading the cover up was indisputable. and the ongoing wiretapping was widespread and that lives could be in danger. it was 2:00 a.m. woodward and i decided we had to get hold of somebody from the "post" immediately. who? we, of course, decided to go straight to bradlee's house. calling from a pay phone before we arrived, he said come over. when we suggested we talk on the front lawn instead of inside ben and his in pajamas and his badge -- bathrobe came out onto the front lawn and when we started to share details of what we had learned, he had one

question, what do we do now? the next day he mobilized all of the senior editors on the rufe garden at the "post" where electronic eavesdropping would be unlikely when one of the editors suggested the thing reached the end of fantasy. ben said he wasn't interested in the logic of it. we've seen some pretty illogical things in the last year he said, he just wanted to find out what might be true. he pulled off being bradlee because he wasn't afraid of president, of polio, of political correctness, of publishing the pentagon papers

of possible retribution or the likelihood that the government might strike at its -- his newspaper with all of his power, going off to war in the pacific and making mistakes. eight weeks ago in long island on august 26, sally seated next to ben at his 93rd birthday party. he held my hand at times and he and i talked about his oldest friends from another washington era, about fast eddie, lawyer edward benny ways -- he shook his head and several others and their sunday breakfast at the drugstore on weans avenue and about water gate, you guys he said. he struggled with some of the particulars but there was that big bradlee smile and he looked great. i mean great. and he made some cracks about sally who was seated in a distance a couple of places away and he seemed to be having a

kind of revelry, savering some memories and then he blew the candles out. >> i loved this man. for the thousands of us who worked with ben. if was not it was this love and the real question is why. because he spoke and dealt with all of us personally. he touched each of us in almost every encounter or discussion with ben, no matter how fleeting, he made you feel better about yourself.

he left you with the feeling not just that he accepted you, but that he loved you in return. he made you want to be better and, yes, had more fun, not just for yourself, but for him, whether it was a 19-year-old summer intern, a beginning reporter in an outer county where ben had never visited, or the spouses of the staff. and here i wanted to list names of people who worked for ben and then my wife reminded me i would have to read the whole staff directory or portions of it over 26 years. ben made -- made you feel that your enterprises, whatever they were, were the most important in

the world. so it might only be for a few seconds, short attention span you know, you got that. ben hated clubs and claimed he never joined one, but he ended up forming the most sought after club ever, club bradlee. no entrance fee, no membership card. everyone felt it was a privilege and work to work in his orbit. we could feel that way because he never conveyed to us that it was a privilege for him. this is what he did. as he aged, he never lost that sweetness for life, for sally and the countless members of his family and for all of us.

he was a journalistic warrior, unequaled and probably never to be matched. he had the courage of an army, a lion in all seasons. he wanted his newspaper to be like the navy destroyer he served on in world war ii, make a big bow waves and leave a royally wake. he -- ben prowled the newsroom in search of news, gossip, the hidden but emerging truth. he did not observe boundaries. they were for others. schedules for those who would miss the moment.

ben studied the classics in college. it was a mild effort by all accounts, but he absorbed the central truth about the greek heroes, strong, leaderly reckless at times, full of doubt and others, successful, yet men who wept tears as most men no longer do. but ben cried easily at the slightest hint of sorrow in a movie or in life. he was in search of the large truth, not just the facts which he was devoted to, but he was looking for the deep emotional struggles he knew were in the great events that moved history. he perceived that there was a thin threshold between flaw and

fatal flaw. as a result, he was with all that sternness and swagger and self-conferred, a for giving man, he -- self-confidence, a for giving man, he understand human frailty, an innocent and unthinking unintentional mistake was forgiven. i knew this because i participated in too many of the celebrated mistakes during his years at the "post.” there were a number of times we obtained information about top secret code word u.s. intelligence programs that provided a degree of security back in the cold war that was almost unimaginable. the real crown jewels. but in the interest of the country's safety at a time of the cold war, ben chose not to publish. he cared deeply about his country. over four decades i traveled the country and the world with ben to give speeches, ferret out the news or vacation or share countless family holidays.

several years ago ben and i were invited to speak at the nixon library in california. ben was astonished that this was happening, could not believe that the world had turned so much. "how do you like them apples?” he said smiling. and adding a second favorite line, think about that for a minute. we showed up at reagan national t.s.a. security for a flight to california. he was not driving these days, so he had no driver's license. he had forgotten his passport and he had no photo i.d. ben pulled out his aarp card.

[laughter] tattered and expired. [laughter] ben always said you have to go with what you have. even if it is a low fare. the t.s.a. man was not going to have anything to do with this and he wouldn't even look at ben's aarp card. behind us in line we heard a voice. it sounded like the voice of moses. it was vernon jordan. [laughter] maybe you know the voice. never a subtle presence, vernon bolted forward and said to the t.s.a. man this is ben bradlee the former editor of "the washington post".

ben bradlee said the t.s.a. man, and then improbably and miraculously he waved ben through security. ben turned and gave one of those smiles and those muscle pumps with his right arm, he had beat the system again. [laughter] in those hard final years of his life as the great mind faded four people really took care of ben, his beloved wife sally. that was a real 41-year love affair, their son quinn, dr. michael newman, a saint in the medical profession and carmen their housekeeper. not chronologically but

psychologically ben's passing is in some respect and in some very clear ways marks the end of the 20th century. he is gone and for that we are diminished and the world is smaller. i will never forget the leadership and the smile of this man we love so much.

[tenor solo singing]

>> part of ben bradlee's incomparable charm was he already seemed ready to say anything to anyone. but ben was meticulous in his outrageousness. tom litman told the story at ben's retirement of how his secretary approached him as she was typing one of ben's letters with a copy editing question.

is dick head one word or two? ben was immensely funny with a pure zest for life. ben would make wise cracks trade insults and gossip about washington. if you were too sent mental in making a story pitch, ben would play an imaginary violin. if you winter on too long, ben would roll his eyes or put his hands to his throat in a choking motion. if you didn't have the story he told you to go get it. being an editor is often mundane, exhausting work. ben made it seem fun.

cool even. no wonder we all tried so desperately to be like him. ben was a tough man who hated lies -- he could be gentle and protective. many of us remember getting in trouble, making mistake or being under public attack and having ben stride across the newsroom put his arm around us, say something obscene and we knew instantly that everything would be fine. knowing ben's passion for all things fresh, sally organized his 90th birthday. during his birthday dinner, ben keeled over and we all thought oh, my god is this it? an ambulance rushed him to the hospital. by the time it ariff rived, ben was chattering away with the

cute french nurses and sally had a look that said i told you he would be fine. as with everything in the final graceful years of ben's life this, -- she was right. when ben received the french award in 2007 i gave a toast for calling the movie cassa blanca would you rather be victor lazlow, the resistance hero in the white suit and -- \[speaking in french] or rick, the saloon keeper played by humphrey bogart

who stands in the shadows in his tuxedo and nods his approval. it was ben's special personality that he was both the man in the white suit who was our leader and the romantic man in the corner who made it cool and glamorous and real. future journalists should ask themselves with us, what would ben do? >> i'm from new york and i'm a heathen from television. but in 1973 i was a young correspondent assigned to cover the white house and water gate

and modestly i thought i brought with me a pretty good reputation as a political reporter in california. i had covered the rise of ronald reagan. in 1968 eugene mccarthy and bobby kennedy, the night that bobby kennedy was killed is seared in my memory, chicago -- and cesar chavez, the anti-war movement, the nixon fundraising apparatus. but in washington there was a lot of except six about whether i was -- skepticism about whether i was up for the job. after a month of being on the white house lawn morning, noon and night, ben bradlee who i barely knew put his arm around me and said, kid, you know what you're doing.

it was began a great friendship. it was only deepened when he maried my friend sally. they had quinn. it was a privilege. i had been thinking about the words that had been written and spoken about ben in the past couple weeks, including mine. they were some somehow inadequate to the point of knowing him which was a physical experience to be in that energy field that he brought into any room that he entered. this defined ben -- lets be clear about something.

those were the sally effect. pre-sally he dressed -- a pedigree that he was proud of but he always war wore -- he once told joan vivian and john gregory dunn, if you think i'm cocky now, you should have known me when the bradlees had four es at the end of their name. ben in his own way was born to become the ben we all came to love and know and cherish and wanted to be part of life. and as the bradlee family had somehow missed a beat in the long line -- that would have been a fake copy but there was nothing fictional about him, his life, his personality, his

style, his accomplishment, his instincts and his love for everything in life. there are so many stories about ben and we've been hearing hear this morning. when ben was in his late 60's or early 70's, he joined a softball game that that we were having, he came to bat and he had a sharp hit to right field. running to first he noticed the right fielder wasn't husbanding, so he took off the second, stretching a single into a double and sliding in. when the dust settled there was ben, prone and safe at second, that killer smile on his face as he raised his fist in triumph.

i remember watching all this and thinking maybe i should have gone to harvard. it was not possible, of course because i was being raised at a time and place when we thought bramin was a bull in a rodeo. although i'm the brokaw family tree there was an -- there was no crowning shield. so it's the end of his life and the end of the days we spent together. for me it was just enough to know him, and to love him. and to his family i want to say we share your sorrow, we also share your pride. and we are the common stewards of all that ben was and his love his heart for journalism, his style, his character, and as i came to know when i wrote about his war experiences with him, his deep